KISS THE DEAD, CHAPTER 36
Mar. 10th, 2014 01:39 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
a_sporking_ratThanks for all the well-wishes! I'm better now, but sadly Joram the mouse is sick. I think he has colic, so I'm nursing him with gripe water and belly rubs.
KISS THE DEAD, CHAPTER 36
Claudia and Domino come in. We are reminded that Domino has black and white curly hair. They ask what happened, she is "straddling Nicky's body, pumping on his chest, trying to get his heart to beat" and I know that's probably what she should be doing but the fact they're naked and it's Anita makes me think she's straddling him in a different way and the guards are going to have to get her off him like ANITA NOT NOW. She says she doesn't know, Claudia turns off the water and gets her cell out to call the doctor, Domino checks Nicky's neck for a pulse, Anita pounds on Nicky's chest while screaming "Breathe, damn you, breathe!" and I am just laughing so hard because I swear that's such a cliche that I've seen movies parodying it more than I've ever seen it played straight these days. It comes off as very NARM here.
She tells us that if he were anyone else that was metaphysically connected to her then she could share energy with him, but him being her Bride means that, unlike a Therian or Vampire Servant, it only goes one way. "Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck!" She's done a stream of fucks a few times in this book so far, and also in Hit List, and it's pretty NARM-y too, honestly. "I opened my link to Jean-Claude" and sees him and Asher having a post-coital cuddle in bed, she "opened myself wide and asked wordlessly, letting him feel what was happening, so there wasn't any need to use words." Yes, that's what 'wordlessly' means. Also the bit about her opening herself wide sounds, well,....like I said, it's Anita. "I asked for help, I asked for ideas, I screamed in my mind, "Nicky!" Maybe it's just my mood right now, but this ALL seems totally NARM-y. JC gets up, "leaving the bed and Asher", and says "Ma petite..." LEAVING ASHER NAH NAH NAH. Oh man, you know what, I bet Nicky collapsed because in the back of her mind Anita wanted something to happen to get JC's attention off Asher and back on her and Brides do what their Masters want...
Anita yells "help him!", Claudia says they're trying, Anita doesn't waste time telling her it's not her she's talking to but mentions Domino will know anyway because he's her tiger-to-call (THERIAN SERVANT PLZ) and thus will just feel it. JC gives Anita a memory of him and Asher watching Belle Morte killing one of her Brides through sex. She also knows they are coming this way but that it doesn't matter because JC doesn't know how to help Nicky. Medics arrive first, Domino lifts Anita off Nicky and then helps the medics move him out of the shower and on to the bench where they fucked earlier. A doctor has defilibrator paddles charged, a nurse starts putting the pads and leads on his chest, the doctor calls READY and everyone else yells back CLEAR, Nicky's body twitches from the pulse, the male doctor says to do it again, the female doctor hits him with a stronger jolt and Anita can smell "a little whiff of burning flesh." Holy shit do they actually do that? They call to do it again, Anita prays to God to please save him, and Nicky gives a huge gasping breath. Of course, right when Anita prays *eyeroll*
Nicky flails and knocks one of the doctors into the wall, Anita pushes her way to him through the crowd shouting his name, he starts to look less frantic and more like he knows what's going on, he tries to reach for her hand, she takes it, there is mention of how his hand is so big and hers is so little, she....puts his hand "against my chest, over my breasts." This could have seemed sweet if she hadn't had to mention her tits. The male doctor checks Nicky's heart with his stethoscope, says his heart is "slow, but steady" and asks what happened to him. My guess is that he played possum really well in hopes it would freak Anita so much she'd think it wasn't safe to fuck him ever again...but then, that would require her caring about the safety of someone else. Anita starts crying but "it was more like I was leaking than crying, as if it would happen totally without me" I have no idea what this means but basically Anita doesn't cry ok she's not a GIRL. She tells the doctor they were having sex and then he just collapsed. She doesn't mention the ardeur and I feel like she really should have, as well as telling him about the vision that JC just gave her. Sure, maybe the doctor won't know what to do, but it's still better to do so than not. The doctor asks how Nicky feels but Nicky doesn't answer, he "just kept looking at me as if I were the only real thing in the room." Ugh. Anita asks Nicky if he can hear her, he says yes, she says to tell the doctor how he feels, Nicky looks around and frowns "as if just now seeing the other people; again, as if I were the only solid thing in the room to him." So, like always, really. "He wasn't well yet; whatever had happened hadn't been instantly fixed." WOW, NO SHIT, REALLY? Cuz you know, I always figured when someone collapsed and their heart stopped, they were clearly fine the second they revived! *sarcasm*
The doctor tells Anita to ask Nicky how he feels, she asks how he feels, he says "bad, weak", Anita kisses his fingers, the doctor asks what the last thing Nicky remembers is, Anita repeats the question to Nicky, Nicky says "Sex, amazing sex" with a wide and happy but still confused smile, Anita smiles back at him and says "It was a-fucking-mazing sex" and he grins. OH DEAR LORD I JUST CAN'T UGH. I know there's "black humor" during bad situations and all, but this doesn't come off like that, it just comes off as totally inappropriate for the situation, really juvenile, and just overall mood-ruining for any type of tense scene. Terrible delivery, terrible execution, sorry LKH. JC comes in, we are reminded that "his face was beautiful and unreadable" but Anita can tell by his shoulders (no, really) that "he knew something about what had happened to Nicky, and he was afraid I wouldn't like it" despite having her just realized from their mental connection a few minutes ago that he knows nothing?
The doctor asks if Nicky can stand, Nicky says he can but then Anita and Domino have to catch him because his knees buckle. Anita thinks if he had on a belt then it would be easier to grab on to, but he's still naked...you know, just in case you wondered if he'd miraculously grown clothes while unconscious. Ugh, I hate pointless little sentences like these. Domino has to take most of the weight because "I was just too damn short", whatever sense that's supposed to make, so Claudia takes Anita's place, and she and Domino start moving Nicky out of the locker room. Anita starts to follow but then she looks at JC, describes how his pajama bottoms almost match Asher's eyes, wonders if Asher is wearing the matching top, mentions he has sex-hair, and then says in an accusatory tone that "You know something" to him. He says yup, she tells him to talk, he says not here, she angrily asks where, he says their room or Asher's room, she asks why Asher's room (oh my gosh Anita this is so not the time) and then Asher comes out and says "Because I am a fool" and Anita talks for a paragraph about how she was so upset about Nicky she didn't even see him in the shadows. Anita says that "If you want an argument about the fool thing, I'm not in the mood." Oh my gosh Anita he didn't hint at all he wanted to argue, he's not YOU. "I crossed my arms under my breasts" CUZ THEY'RE TOO BIG FOR HER TO CROSS 'EM oh man I will never be over that ever.
Then she realizes she's still nude. I was expecting this, and expecting a bunch of inner talk about it, but she pleasantly surprises it by thinking "Screw it. Nicky had almost died, and the two vampires knew what had gone wrong with the ardeur". And then she thinks how she thought she had the ardeur under control but now she's almost accidentally killed Nicky. "Fuck." Asher steps closer to her and she talks about his hair, and about his robe, and her wondering "did you decorate the decoration" regarding the fur collar on it and this is so stupid that even she thinks it must be because even though she's physically healed but "mentally I was somewhere between angry, depressed, and lost" and she wonders what went wrong with her and Nicky. She says "Let me get my weapons and something to put on, then either room." LET HER GET SOME WEAPONS TO PUT ON. WHAT THE HELL. "I just want to know what is making you both act like little boys who go caught." So, what, you're gonna shoot 'em? What the hell do you need weapons here for? Can Anita just not face a problem, no matter what it is, without a gun on her? That...sounds like Lucille but that's because Lucille is FUCKED UP and it is meant to SHOW THAT. "Neither of them argued about me calling them little boys who had got caught" Maybe they're worried you'll shoot them "it was not a good sign. It meant there was something for at least one of them to feel guilty about." OR MAYBE THEY'RE WORRIED YOU'LL SHOOT THEM.
Calling it now, this was either somehow Asher's fault, or it turns out that the ardeur is indeed not wholly under Anita's control and thus any hope of agency or responsibility goes out the window just as we start seeing signs of it becoming a possible thing in the series.
KISS THE DEAD, CHAPTER 36
Claudia and Domino come in. We are reminded that Domino has black and white curly hair. They ask what happened, she is "straddling Nicky's body, pumping on his chest, trying to get his heart to beat" and I know that's probably what she should be doing but the fact they're naked and it's Anita makes me think she's straddling him in a different way and the guards are going to have to get her off him like ANITA NOT NOW. She says she doesn't know, Claudia turns off the water and gets her cell out to call the doctor, Domino checks Nicky's neck for a pulse, Anita pounds on Nicky's chest while screaming "Breathe, damn you, breathe!" and I am just laughing so hard because I swear that's such a cliche that I've seen movies parodying it more than I've ever seen it played straight these days. It comes off as very NARM here.
She tells us that if he were anyone else that was metaphysically connected to her then she could share energy with him, but him being her Bride means that, unlike a Therian or Vampire Servant, it only goes one way. "Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck!" She's done a stream of fucks a few times in this book so far, and also in Hit List, and it's pretty NARM-y too, honestly. "I opened my link to Jean-Claude" and sees him and Asher having a post-coital cuddle in bed, she "opened myself wide and asked wordlessly, letting him feel what was happening, so there wasn't any need to use words." Yes, that's what 'wordlessly' means. Also the bit about her opening herself wide sounds, well,....like I said, it's Anita. "I asked for help, I asked for ideas, I screamed in my mind, "Nicky!" Maybe it's just my mood right now, but this ALL seems totally NARM-y. JC gets up, "leaving the bed and Asher", and says "Ma petite..." LEAVING ASHER NAH NAH NAH. Oh man, you know what, I bet Nicky collapsed because in the back of her mind Anita wanted something to happen to get JC's attention off Asher and back on her and Brides do what their Masters want...
Anita yells "help him!", Claudia says they're trying, Anita doesn't waste time telling her it's not her she's talking to but mentions Domino will know anyway because he's her tiger-to-call (THERIAN SERVANT PLZ) and thus will just feel it. JC gives Anita a memory of him and Asher watching Belle Morte killing one of her Brides through sex. She also knows they are coming this way but that it doesn't matter because JC doesn't know how to help Nicky. Medics arrive first, Domino lifts Anita off Nicky and then helps the medics move him out of the shower and on to the bench where they fucked earlier. A doctor has defilibrator paddles charged, a nurse starts putting the pads and leads on his chest, the doctor calls READY and everyone else yells back CLEAR, Nicky's body twitches from the pulse, the male doctor says to do it again, the female doctor hits him with a stronger jolt and Anita can smell "a little whiff of burning flesh." Holy shit do they actually do that? They call to do it again, Anita prays to God to please save him, and Nicky gives a huge gasping breath. Of course, right when Anita prays *eyeroll*
Nicky flails and knocks one of the doctors into the wall, Anita pushes her way to him through the crowd shouting his name, he starts to look less frantic and more like he knows what's going on, he tries to reach for her hand, she takes it, there is mention of how his hand is so big and hers is so little, she....puts his hand "against my chest, over my breasts." This could have seemed sweet if she hadn't had to mention her tits. The male doctor checks Nicky's heart with his stethoscope, says his heart is "slow, but steady" and asks what happened to him. My guess is that he played possum really well in hopes it would freak Anita so much she'd think it wasn't safe to fuck him ever again...but then, that would require her caring about the safety of someone else. Anita starts crying but "it was more like I was leaking than crying, as if it would happen totally without me" I have no idea what this means but basically Anita doesn't cry ok she's not a GIRL. She tells the doctor they were having sex and then he just collapsed. She doesn't mention the ardeur and I feel like she really should have, as well as telling him about the vision that JC just gave her. Sure, maybe the doctor won't know what to do, but it's still better to do so than not. The doctor asks how Nicky feels but Nicky doesn't answer, he "just kept looking at me as if I were the only real thing in the room." Ugh. Anita asks Nicky if he can hear her, he says yes, she says to tell the doctor how he feels, Nicky looks around and frowns "as if just now seeing the other people; again, as if I were the only solid thing in the room to him." So, like always, really. "He wasn't well yet; whatever had happened hadn't been instantly fixed." WOW, NO SHIT, REALLY? Cuz you know, I always figured when someone collapsed and their heart stopped, they were clearly fine the second they revived! *sarcasm*
The doctor tells Anita to ask Nicky how he feels, she asks how he feels, he says "bad, weak", Anita kisses his fingers, the doctor asks what the last thing Nicky remembers is, Anita repeats the question to Nicky, Nicky says "Sex, amazing sex" with a wide and happy but still confused smile, Anita smiles back at him and says "It was a-fucking-mazing sex" and he grins. OH DEAR LORD I JUST CAN'T UGH. I know there's "black humor" during bad situations and all, but this doesn't come off like that, it just comes off as totally inappropriate for the situation, really juvenile, and just overall mood-ruining for any type of tense scene. Terrible delivery, terrible execution, sorry LKH. JC comes in, we are reminded that "his face was beautiful and unreadable" but Anita can tell by his shoulders (no, really) that "he knew something about what had happened to Nicky, and he was afraid I wouldn't like it" despite having her just realized from their mental connection a few minutes ago that he knows nothing?
The doctor asks if Nicky can stand, Nicky says he can but then Anita and Domino have to catch him because his knees buckle. Anita thinks if he had on a belt then it would be easier to grab on to, but he's still naked...you know, just in case you wondered if he'd miraculously grown clothes while unconscious. Ugh, I hate pointless little sentences like these. Domino has to take most of the weight because "I was just too damn short", whatever sense that's supposed to make, so Claudia takes Anita's place, and she and Domino start moving Nicky out of the locker room. Anita starts to follow but then she looks at JC, describes how his pajama bottoms almost match Asher's eyes, wonders if Asher is wearing the matching top, mentions he has sex-hair, and then says in an accusatory tone that "You know something" to him. He says yup, she tells him to talk, he says not here, she angrily asks where, he says their room or Asher's room, she asks why Asher's room (oh my gosh Anita this is so not the time) and then Asher comes out and says "Because I am a fool" and Anita talks for a paragraph about how she was so upset about Nicky she didn't even see him in the shadows. Anita says that "If you want an argument about the fool thing, I'm not in the mood." Oh my gosh Anita he didn't hint at all he wanted to argue, he's not YOU. "I crossed my arms under my breasts" CUZ THEY'RE TOO BIG FOR HER TO CROSS 'EM oh man I will never be over that ever.
Then she realizes she's still nude. I was expecting this, and expecting a bunch of inner talk about it, but she pleasantly surprises it by thinking "Screw it. Nicky had almost died, and the two vampires knew what had gone wrong with the ardeur". And then she thinks how she thought she had the ardeur under control but now she's almost accidentally killed Nicky. "Fuck." Asher steps closer to her and she talks about his hair, and about his robe, and her wondering "did you decorate the decoration" regarding the fur collar on it and this is so stupid that even she thinks it must be because even though she's physically healed but "mentally I was somewhere between angry, depressed, and lost" and she wonders what went wrong with her and Nicky. She says "Let me get my weapons and something to put on, then either room." LET HER GET SOME WEAPONS TO PUT ON. WHAT THE HELL. "I just want to know what is making you both act like little boys who go caught." So, what, you're gonna shoot 'em? What the hell do you need weapons here for? Can Anita just not face a problem, no matter what it is, without a gun on her? That...sounds like Lucille but that's because Lucille is FUCKED UP and it is meant to SHOW THAT. "Neither of them argued about me calling them little boys who had got caught" Maybe they're worried you'll shoot them "it was not a good sign. It meant there was something for at least one of them to feel guilty about." OR MAYBE THEY'RE WORRIED YOU'LL SHOOT THEM.
Calling it now, this was either somehow Asher's fault, or it turns out that the ardeur is indeed not wholly under Anita's control and thus any hope of agency or responsibility goes out the window just as we start seeing signs of it becoming a possible thing in the series.
